Custom typeface: Derzeit

In december 2011, Manuel Schibli, art director of Derzeit, an independent daily magazine for the Berlin Fashion Week, approached Yassin Baggar to collaborate on a new set of fonts for the redesign of the January issues, a very short deadline. His intention was to change the look of the magazine, and give it a harder and more mature appearance. The new typography breaks away from the rounder and “fashion-esque” aspect of the previous fonts, with a more radical approach. Hard edges break round shapes in unusual places. At the detriment of legibility, the letters are intentionally eccentric, even incoherent, serving the main purpose of the typeface: to convey the identity of the magazine. Not everything changed from the previous design: the letter z, a very distinct element of the previous logotype, remained very special, making the typeface and the magazine directly recognizable, whether one looks at the cover or spreads. The Derzeit typeface consists of 6 styles: a regular which is mainly used in small sizes for the events programme, a medium style for leads, and four condensed styles that are used from the smallest to the biggest sizes.

About Fatype

Fatype is an independent type foundry established by Anton Koovit and Yassin Baggar.
We distribute original retail typefaces and offer our expertise for the creation of taylor-made typefaces, the customisation of existing fonts, language extensions, and the optimisation of typefaces for screen rendering.
Fatype has designed typefaces for GQ France, Derzeit (Fashion Week Berlin Daily), Google and Journal B.